Clan Bound
by Pandabarrie
Summary: Parts: 1 and 2 a story about a house cat .kittypet. who meets a mysterious young tom from the forest. a short, kinda sad story. im rather proud of it


PART 1

**A box** tumbled down a small hill hitting rocks and sticks along the way and stopped abruptly. Rory tried to stand, but was too dizzied from the roll. One of her paws touched the side of the box and recoiled, as she realized that it was cold and damp. The box was dark, but now that he stopped moving, he heard the gushing of water, and the smell of grass, the familiar scent of winter, and…water!

Blind and terrified, Rory began to panic. Claws extended, Rory spun around and began shredding at the side of the box. Pieces of the thick material flew everywhere, as the side of the box grew wetter, and a large amount of water began to collect in one corner. Rory's arms burned. She had never had to use them this hard. The box soon gave way and when she saw one blue star gleaming through a gap, she hurtled herself through it, but at that same instant, the box slid down a foot more, and sent Rory sliding back into the collapsing box.

Darkness was everywhere. There was no hope of survival, and Rory knew that, but still she struggled to find the gap again. But when at last she had found it, it was not pointing up, toward surface. In horror, Rory knew she had no choice and with one push of her hind legs bolted down out of the box, deep into the cold water. Again darkness consumed her, and all was lost.

The sound of the gravel crunching and the sputtering of the monster that was heard from out beyond the walls spoiled the reminiscing dreams of a few moons ago. Lex stretched out on the floor where she had been laying all day in the warm glow of new leaf's sun by the window through the blinds.

Rising to her feet, Lex trotted over to the door and leaped up onto of the table to get a better view out the window. _Of course, my senses were correct and my masters were home again! But what is that cage they carry with them?_

Lex didn't like boxes. She didn't like to be concealed in any way, neither physically, nor emotionally. And she could feel the long fur on her back raise in apprehension. Her watchful blue eyes followed the tall woman and the short child, who seemed to want as much of the box as he could get, but the mother looked as if she had no intention of giving it to him.

At once, Lex realized that they must be planning on taking her to the "vet" as they called it. And in a flash, Lex was up the stairs, over the boxes and under a forgotten dresser. _It is stuffy under here, but anything is better than then **that** place!_ Thought Lex bitterly.

From below, she could hear the clanging of the door and creatures entering the threshold of where she was happily captive. And as she suspected she hear them calling her by her new name. But she knew better than to come. For the feline that comes when she is called will suffer greatly.

Lex had learned that the hard way…

A great time passed before Lex realized that her masters has resumed there daily routines, but she could hear a hushed cooing from below the dusty floorboards. But still, she persistently remained beneath the dresser and with her teeth clenched hissed to her invisible companion _"they shall NOT take me away! They shall NOT!"_

So Lex stubbornly stayed where she was, and it seemed as though time had no effect on her, because those minutes dragged on into hours. And pretty soon, night had descended on the home, and filled the dingy room with a musty darkness. Until she could stand the eerie quiet of the house no longer, and she slid from beneath her hiding place, and, without a sound, crept to stairs.

Here, she stopped and listened. Her ears swerved around trying to hear where her house masters where. But all she could hear was the faintest breathing of the small one. Then she knew that the female twoleg and her mate had gone. But where? Hunting perhaps. She had decided she had napped when they left, because why else hadn't she heard them leave. It was fun to decide what was going on in the house without actually being there.

Then she heard a new sound. A scuttling. Could it be a mouse? No…the movement was not within the walls or the floor, but below it, in some other part of the home. Perhaps the mouse was down there. She listened for more. The sound subsided slightly. But she could hear it. It was no trouble for her to hear an ant walking on the floor a whole tail length ahead of her.

It was moving too heavily to be a mouse. Then she heard a loud thunk of an object below in the meal making room. This made Lex jump. What could possibly be down there?

Tail twitching with unease, she slunk down the stairs, careful to stay in the shadows by the wall.

As she came to the entranceway to the meal room, she peered around the corner and she scanned the area. _Nothing suspicious…_

_But the sound is defiantly coming from in here… _She thought. But just as she took a step into the room, the noise stopped. Everything was as silent as if Lex was alone. But she could tell there was someone else in the room. She took a step further and took a sniff. Before she could register the scent, she saw a small head peek around the counter and hide again. But Lex had seen it and there was no use for it to hide.

Her silver tabby pelt shimmered in the moonlight through the window as she crossed over to where she saw the intruder. But when she came around to the other side of the counter, there was nothing there…

"_Some things wrong"_ she thought

Suddenly all she could see was white and the back of her head exploded with pain. She staggered forward and yowled with rage and pain. Once the pain subsided she opened her eyes and whirled around to face her attacker, and she saw a long stripped tail disappear around the counter again. She raged after it and pounced on the creatures tail, digging her clipped claws in as much as she could but it was no use the creature easily slipped back into the shadows and for the time, was gone.

Breathing heavily, she tried to imagine what a kit was doing in her territory and why it had attacked her, as she felt warm blood trickle down her back.

PART 2

That night, Lex slept beneath the dresser again. She awoke to a loud giggling from below from the little twoleg, so she assumed it was all right to go back down.

After a thorough wash to get the rest of the dried blood off her coat, she crawled out from the closet, walked down the stairs, and into the meal room where her dry tasteless meal was waiting for her.

But as she entered the meal room, she noticed something different. There was her feeding dish and her water bowl but there was another bowl beside them. A small yellow dish filled with small chunks of delicious smelling pellets while her own was rather bland. But she wasn't very hungry at the moment. She wanted to patrol the entire house today and find out what was going on.

Lex decided to start with the most important room of the house; the room where the twoleg family and their guests would go to to talk. She entered the room and smelt that familiar scent of the intruder immediately. She looked up to see the young one dragging a ball on a string for a small brown tabby, who looked annoyed but seemed interested in the colorful moving object.

Lex's fur stood on end and she let out a low growl that made the young twoleg look up curiously, while the brown tabby hissed casually "mornin' kittypet."

The twoleg stood, and scooped the kitten up in his arms, walked over and placed him in front of Lex.

He exclaimed something loudly to the two cats; Lex only understood "Lexy" and "kitty," while the other cat just stared up at him with a look of utter confusion.

After the young one sat back to watch what the two cats would do, Lex asked her question.

"Who are you?"

"Well. My name is tigerkit, but these twolegs have taken fondly to calling me 'Maxie'…who are you?"

Lex stared in puzzlement at this strange cat. What kind of name was tigerkit? "My name is Lex," she said, swishing her tail. "Why are you here?" she inquired.

"I was out walking and this stupid twoleg came up and snatched me from my home. They put me in a few cages and a bunch of ugly twolegs kept poking me…then your twolegs came and put me in another cage. And here I am…" He looked out the window. "If I can just get out of this place, maybe I can find my way back home in the woods an--"

"--WHAT!" said Lex; her jaw dropped open and she stared unbelievingly at the kit. "You mean your one of those feral cats?"

"Clan cats" interrupted the kit

"What?"

"Clan cats, I'm from a clan called Shadow Clan"

"What ever. This just keeps getting weirder…" Lex responded

The kit merely laughed and said "Silly kittypet."

Lex flattened her ears and hissed, "What is that supposed to mean!"

But Lex didn't get her answer because the young twoleg scrambled over and picked up his new kitten as soon as he heard her hiss.

That night, back under the dresser, Lex awoke to the sound of the faintest mewing. Lex sighed and decided to go and see what was wrong with the kit. Downstairs, in the 'most important room,' was where Lex found him. Sitting on the windowsill, peeking through the curtains. She thought he was trying to scare something away, as she herself may have done. But as Lex padded closer, she saw he was actually crying!

Feeling sorry for the kit, she jumped up onto the sill next to him and he immediately buried his face in her long black and gray fur. Lex wasn't sure what to do, or why he was crying so.

She could feel his warm tears falling through her fur and she looked down at the kit and put her paw comfortingly around him and said. "Don't worry young one. Everything will be alright."

PART 3

Many moons had passed since the evening Maxie had arrived. He grew fast, and his brown tabby coat shined in the light. But he lost most of the muscle he had when he had first arrived and he would get his claws clipped frequently. The twolegs eventually stopped feeding him the small delicious pellets and switched him onto Lex's brand, but he rarely ate very much at a time out of the bowl. He preferred to steal meat or any other food that the clumsy twolegs dropped 'for' him when they were preparing a meal.

Maxie was growing to be a very kind tom, and he grew very close to Lex. He looked up to her and they would play and tussle (much to their twoleg master's amusement). Lex too had grown close to Maxie, and she like calling him by his twoleg name a lot, even thought he would constantly remind her that if he still lived in the forest, he would be called 'Tigerpaw' by now and he would demand that Lex call by his clan-given name (which was still tigerkit). But usually Lex would purr in amusement and disregard his request.

But as close as the two cats where, they were very different. Mostly because of the fact that Maxie still preferred the forest to anything else this 'kittypet world' as he called it, could offer. Lex on the other hand, loved living in the house. She loved the attention, the abundant supply of food and the boy, who would save up strange green leaves his mother twoleg would give him and he would buy fun little toys for the two cats.

One leaf-bare evening, a terrible blizzard hit and shook the house violently. Lex brought Maxie up with her to hide under the dresser, until the danger had passed. It seemed to go on for an eternity. The screen door would flap stiffly in the horrible wind and the two cats heard large balls of hail hitting the house. The terrible sound grew louder and louder and then, possibly at the height of the storms power, there was a large crashing sound of windows breaking, the screams of the boy, and the sound of hail growing louder.

"STARCLAN IS TRYING TO PUNISH ME! THEY ARE AFTER ME FOR LEAVING!" Maxie wailed. Lex put her paw on his head and he scooted closer and tried to hide in her long coat. Lex had heard of Maxie telling briefly of the powerful Starclan, and Lex became concerned that they were real and were, in fact, coming for them both. The storm continued and Maxie passed out in his fright, and soon Lex too, fell asleep.

Maxie prodded Lex awake, and when she opened her eyes she saw the young tom looking at her happily.

"They weren't here to get me!" he exclaimed happily, his whole body quivering with excitement.

"…. Wha...what?" Lex replied groggily.

"They were trying to help me!" he said, more loudly.

Lex was sitting up now, and looked puzzled. "I don't think I underst--"

"Follow me!" Maxie interrupted and he ran from under the dresser, down the stairs and into the 'most important room', with Lex at his tail. The stopped at the rooms' threshold and Lex stared open mouthed at what she saw. There lying vertically through the middle of the room was a large and snow-covered tree. Melting pieced of hail and water lay in the entire room and Lex could see the perfect blue sky through a large whole in the ceiling and wall. Lex was horrified. But Maxie on the other hand was ecstatic.

"Follow me!" he said again, and raced up to the tree and bounded easily onto a branch, and then again onto the trunk.

"No!" Lex called after him "We can't!"

But Maxie wouldn't listen. He padded quickly along the trunk and disappeared past the wall.

Lex ran after him, leapt onto the first branch and then again onto the trunk, with some difficulty. Once she had heaved herself up, she pelted along the slippery bark and before she knew it, for the first time in many moons, she was back outside. The terrible memories flooded back like the cold river and she thought desperately. "_I've got to get Maxie back!_" She scanned the area and saw Maxie's dark brown pelt disappear behind a mound of snow. He was in a hurry to get somewhere.

"MAXIE!" she yowled after him as she leapt from the trunk and landed throat-deep in the soft, cold snow. She bounded high through the snow, trying to catch up to Maxie.

"Lex! Hurry! I think I know where I am!" he called to her

Lex bounded up to him and flopped down in the deep snow beside him. "Maxie…can we please go back?" she panted.

"Lex. From now on, you must call me Tigerpaw!" he seemed different. Thought Lex. It was as though a sleeping beast had awoken within him and turned him into what he really was.

"Max--" she began.

"Tigerpaw!" He said loudly.

"T-tiger…paw…" she said slowly.

"I am at the border of one of the forest clans. I can barely smell their patrols, markings, but I know I can get back home. I know I can get home…" He repeated his eyes looked sad with a look of longing and happiness. He turned to her and said, "You can come with me! The clan will love you! You can live with me!"

Lex looked as though she might cry. She lowered her head and said quietly "My place is with the twolegs…I can't…I can't leave them…its where I belong…" she closed her eyes and a tear fell. "Please stay here with me here…" she begged him quietly, not looking up at him.

"Lex…" he said. His voice was cracking and it sounded at though he might cry as well. "…Lex please…"

There was a long silence. Nothing was heard. Everything was muted by the deep white blanket of snow, and there were no leaves to rustle. It was as though time itself had stopped

"I'm sorry Tigerpaw…" she said when she finally looked up "I'm so sorry…"

Tigerpaw looked at her with a blank expression. "Then…Lex…I guess this is goodbye…"

"Yes…I suppose it is…" Lex wanted to press her muzzle into his fur and breath in his scent one last time.

Tigerpaw lowered his head respectfully and said "perhaps we will meat again…I hope…"

"Me too…" Lex mewed

And then, Tigerpaw turned away, into the forest. Lex's eyes widened and she felt her heart rip apart. He was leaving! Tigerpaw was looking at the ground as he bounded slowly through the snow in shock of what had just happened.

Lex stood there for a long time after Tigerpaw had disappeared. _"He didn't even look back…" _she thought.

Lex felt a strange panic build inside of her and her mind whirled. She spun around and bounded back into the house, back up the stairs and under the dresser. The spot where Tigerpaw had been so close to her just the other night. And now he seemed so far away. She looked at the dusty floorboards and her mind began to grow light and her eyes stung. She threw her beautiful gray head back and yowled mournfully. Large tears dripped like a stream down her face and she then she knew he would never come back.

Poor Tigerpaw never knew that Lex loved him just as much as he loved her.

THE END


End file.
